Category

On February 25, Hello! Project announced that the name of their new Kenshuusei unit would be "Kobushi Factory". The name "Kobushi Factory" came from Kobushi Magnolia, which is a tree native to Japan, and "Kobushi," which means "fist" in Japanese. They wish to be a group as graceful as the Kobushi Magnolia flowers and as powerful as a fist represents. Also, just like the language of the Kobushi Magnolia ("friendship", "trust",

On February 25, the total audience members to AKB48's base, AKB48 Theater (Akihabara, Tokyo) reached the one million mark.AKB48 theater has a capacity of 250, and there were only 7 people who visited the first opening performance, however, after 9 years and 2 months (3367 days) since its opening on December 8 2005, it has finally welcomed the one-millionth visitor. Up until now, a total of 471 members (including AKB48, SKE48, NMB48, HK

Previously, we reported that actress Yuki Mio (15) would be making her singing debut with double A-side single "Oshiete, Kamisama / Sayonara Mata Aoune", which was scheduled to be released on March 25. However, it was recently announced the release of her debut single has been postponed, and a CD debut event, which was slated to be held on February 26, has been canceled.
Her CD debut event was originally scheduled to be held on the 2nd

Actor Oguri Shun is starring in the new CM for Glico's 'Pretz', which will begin airing nationwide on February 26.
The CM starts with Oguri gazing at a woman practicing the piano. When the woman notices Oguri mumbling to himself, she looks over at the sofa and finds a blue bird in his place. On his first 'bird role', Oguri commented, "I played the part while being conscious of the qualities of birds." Source & Image: Oricon

MAX member REINA, who has been on maternity leave since 2011, has announced that she has given birth to her third child, a baby boy.
Although she gave birth one week after her due date, REINA revealed that the delivery went smoothly. Her son was born 4 hours after she went into labor. She explained, "Because I'm still on maternity leave and haven't returned to work yet, I decided to make the announcement to everyone after I had given birth."&nbs

7-member vocal and dance unit GENERATIONS from EXILE TRIBE topped Oricon's latest weekly album ranking with their 2nd album "GENERATION EX" (released on February 18) with first week sales of 64,000 copies.As their previous self-titled album "GENERATIONS from EXILE TRIBE" released in November 2013 grabbed No.1 spot on the chart, this marked the 2nd consecutive chart-topping album. Also, the first week sales was 15,000 copies more than the previous

SMAP's 54th single "Kareinaru Gyakushu / Humor Shichauyo" which went on sale on February 18, topped Oricon's latest weekly ranking, selling 160,000 copies in the first week.This is their 21st consecutive chart topping single, and 32nd overall.
When including the sales for this single, the group's total number of singles and albums sold have reached 35,158,000 copies. They are the 4th male artist to reach the 35 million sale threshold, following

On February 23rd, major league baseball player Yu Darvish (28) announced through his blog that his girlfriend, former world wrestling champion Yamamoto Seiko (34) is expecting their child. Darvish reported, "This is a private matter, but Yamamoto Seiko-san, whom I have been in a relationship with for some time now, and I have been blessed with a new life." He continued, "We learned about this late last year, but we w

On February 22nd, former Morning Musume member Goto Maki (29) held a wedding ceremony and reception party with her husband who she married last July.Apparently, 200 people attended the party including her fellow former Morning Musume members like, Iida Kaori, Abe Natsumi, Yasuda Kei, Yaguchi Mari, Ishikawa Rika, Yoshizawa Hitomi, Takahashi Ai, and Tsuji Nozomi, who blessed the couple.Regarding her wedding dress, Goto said, "I chose this dress, be